🔗 Share this article

Attempts to free of Alaa Abd el-Fattah frequently diverted Keir Starmer’s government from focusing on bread-and-butter home affairs, according to one of the PM's inner circle of ex-aides.

A 'Running Joke' Within Government

Paul Ovenden, who stepped down last year as the prime minister’s director of strategy, said the case of the imprisoned activist became a “running joke” among those in Whitehall exasperated with the lack of progress of change.

“We'd hold long meetings on the key goals of the government, and often they would be railroaded via any other business into conversations of this gentleman,” he stated on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He continued, “Most of us on the political side of government weren’t that aware of it – not closely following it – because it didn't affect us on a day-to-day basis. It actually became a bit of a kind of a running joke within government that people would always find a way to bring it back to this topic.”

A Sign of Wider Struggles

Ovenden argued the amount of time dedicated to freeing Abd el-Fattah was symptomatic of a government that has struggled to remain concentrated on the public's main concerns in the face of pressure from “well-connected” activist groups and quasi-independent agencies.

These remarks came in his initial public statement since he resigned in September, after it was revealed he sent offensive texts about the Labour MP Diane Abbott previously.

Echoes of PM's Own Concerns

However, Ovenden’s assessment is shared by many in Number 10, even the prime minister, who lamented last month about excessive red tape slowing government action.

Ovenden said Abd el-Fattah’s case was among a number of areas where the government became distracted from its primary goals. He pointed to rows over reparations to former colonies and banning smoking in outdoor hospitality areas as further examples.

“At a time when the public is getting increasingly impatient, more and more fed up with a lack of progress, more and more fed up with distraction, in my opinion, we cannot justify to be spending their time on what I consider distractions,” he said.

Advocating for a Radical Shift

In a separate piece, he calls on the government to scale back environmental regulations, reduce welfare spending and even scrap the guaranteed pension increase mechanism.

“We don’t have to keep picking the pockets of the wealth-generating sectors of our economy in order to fund above-inflation pension rises for the wealthy or an unaffordable benefits framework,” he writes. “We don’t have to strangle small businesses from the outset with regulatory burdens.”

Having been part of a handful of advisers close to the prime minister since his days in the opposition benches, his departure was seen by many as a setback to Starmer, even as his analysis of governmental focus resonates in certain quarters.